Maintaining Long-Term Control

Now that you are well underway in your action plan for diabetes, we will discuss ways of maintaining your success. You have set short-term goals that have been linked together to meet your main goal of glucose control through an active and healthy lifestyle. Your challenge now is to reeducate yourself about diabetes as new knowledge is gained in this field and to keep up with new technology. With this newly gained knowledge and technology, you must remotivate yourself to make the necessary changes to your action plan and promise yourself that you will keep on moving forward.

In chapter 7 we discussed ways to monitor your progress and how to respond to change. The same principles carry over into the maintenance phase of your action plan. It will be important for you to meet with your health care team at least once a year during the maintenance phase and more frequently (every three months) in the earlier phases to ensure that you are on track. New information may become available that your physician will be aware of and can pass on to you. But more important, your health care team will be available for you as challenges present themselves. They can help you make the correct changes in response to these problems and to avoid potential frustrations.

You must understand what the common complications are and how to avoid them. It is even more important to understand what to do if you are faced with them. As we discussed in chapter 3, just as the lead planner of the project to send a spaceship to Mars and back to Earth has to be prepared for all situations, you have to be prepared to deal with potential problems and have a rescue plan in place. The best way to create your rescue plan is to identify the things that may interrupt your exercise plans or interfere with your healthy eating habits. For instance, say you find yourself skipping exercise sessions to watch television. Or say that you find yourself going out with friends and indulging in high-calorie foods several times a week. The best preventive measure is to recognize the triggers early and have a rescue plan in place. Let's look at some sample situations and ways of dealing with them.

Decreased exercise

Increased Caloric Consumption

Contracts